Chapter 487: Marry Acheron - 487

Sylvia left the platform with Mei.

"I wonder if Polka Kakamond even got hurt."

Sylvia wasn't even sure how long that bullet would take to reach its target.

Mei smiled without saying anything. She hadn't seen the bullet being fired herself, so she couldn't say for sure what'd happened. Still, if it had drawn the gaze of the Aeon of The Hunt, its power couldn't be that weak.

There was also the brief surge of power she'd felt in the room earlier. Mei suspected that if she'd taken a hit like that without any defense, even she might not have walked away unscathed. Sylvia was being a little too pessimistic.

"Whatever. It was only ever a bonus."

Sylvia figured a bullet was just a bullet. If she wanted a sure way to kill Polka, she'd be better off mastering Tsubame Gaeshi, crossing the sea of stars, and cutting her down with a single strike.

"Come practice with me."

Sylvia extended an invitation, and Mei was more than happy to accept. The two left the space station and began their daily training on a barren planet nearby.

Several days passed like this.

Sylvia hadn't returned to the Xianzhou. Instead, she'd been keeping up with developments there through online messages each day.

She didn't know every detail, but from what Jing Yuan had told her, she could confirm that the Borisin had infiltrated the Six Commissions during the recent unrest on the Luofu. The Alchemy Commission had played a rather delicate role in the whole affair.

And since the Alchemy Commission was largely controlled by the Vidyadhara, there was no way they could escape responsibility.

Reading between the lines, Sylvia could tell that Jing Yuan was ready to start killing.

As it happened, Bailu had grown quite strong. Although she still couldn't compare to Dan Feng at his peak, her future looked bright. And with Sylvia, a "True Dragon," backing her, Jing Yuan figured this might be the perfect chance to put Bailu in power.

That was his plan, anyway.

He'd asked Sylvia for her opinion first. In short, if she thought it was too early, he could always come up with another excuse. But if Sylvia was willing to give Bailu a little support, they could use this momentum to install her as High Elder now and avoid a long struggle later.

Sylvia didn't particularly want to discuss this with Jing Yuan.

She just didn't get it. Why did Jing Yuan insist on dragging her into the Xianzhou's internal affairs?

That man had about eight hundred schemes running through his head at any given moment. Sylvia couldn't even be bothered to guess what he was really after.

So she refused to give him a straight answer and told him to ask Bailu herself.

Bailu might look small, but she wasn't actually a little kid. Sure, she still showed a childish side now and then, but her emotional intelligence and judgment were perfectly fine. All Sylvia needed to do was make sure Bailu kept getting stronger and stayed safe.

As for Jing Yuan's nonsense?

There was no way she'd let that man drag her into the political swamp between the Luofu's Vidyadhara and the Xianzhou.

The Luofu Vidyadhara were such an obvious mess that Jing Yuan had better clean up most of it before Bailu took power. Otherwise, Sylvia would take Bailu to Amphoreus for more training and leave Jing Yuan to deal with the headache himself.

Aside from the Borisin situation, things were much more cheerful on the Astral Express crew's side.

Apparently, the person in charge of the IPC shipment that'd been hijacked was none other than Scott. Again.

The guy probably hadn't known anything about the conspiracy. Caught between the Borisin and the Xianzhou, he'd nearly died of frustration.

Then, as anyone could've guessed, he'd gotten into another argument with March 7th. The two ended up making a bet: before the Wardance began, they'd settle things with a match between swordsmanship and the IPC's tactical mecha.

March 7th had agreed in the heat of the moment.

Only afterward did she remember that she was an archer who had next to no experience in close combat.

With no other choice, she'd taken Bailu's recommendation and gone to Yunli to learn Xianzhou swordsmanship.

Yunli had given her a lovely training outfit, and March 7th had bought a few more sets herself. Lately, she'd been acting like a proper Xianzhou native.

It was pretty cute.

As for Yanqing, once he'd heard that the IPC was involved, he'd felt the Xianzhou bore some responsibility for the situation too. So whenever he had time, he'd stop by to give March 7th a few pointers.

Unfortunately...

Calling Yanqing's and Yunli's views on swordsmanship completely different wouldn't be quite right. They were more like polar opposites.

The two teachers hadn't started arguing, but neither had shown any interest in talking to the other. They'd even gone out of their way to schedule their lessons at different times, as though they were competing to see whose teaching would produce better results through March 7th.

The result was that March 7th's training load had doubled overnight.

Every day, she'd flood the Astral Express group chat with tearful complaints, cursing herself for having such a big mouth. Why had she ever made that stupid bet with Scott?

At least she'd provided everyone with plenty of entertainment.

In any case, Jing Yuan was laying his countermeasures against the Borisin, one step at a time.

The problem was that nobody knew which other faction might be supporting them behind the scenes.

If a fight really broke out, Jing Yuan was confident he could keep the Wardance from being disrupted. But he still hadn't found the mastermind.

At the very least, he needed to find out where the Borisin had gotten those things that allowed them to disguise themselves.

And the Borisin were such a proud race that their willingness to lower themselves to impersonating Foxians was strange in itself.

It left Jing Yuan wondering whether the Borisin had already chosen a new Warhead, or whether an outsider had infiltrated their ranks and guided the entire plot.

So Jing Yuan kept his bait in the water.

And he kept waiting.

As for Sylvia, she had no plans to return to the Xianzhou just yet. She didn't want to interfere with Jing Yuan's plans and scare off whoever was pulling the strings.

Instead, she and Mei stayed at Herta Space Station, training and studying Tsubame Gaeshi.

They'd made remarkable progress over the past few days.

Sylvia's sword speed, power, and range had all improved by leaps and bounds. She'd even increased the number of strikes she could unleash at once from three to five, giving the technique far greater killing power.

Using the principles behind Tsubame Gaeshi, Sylvia had also learned to perform short-range spatial jumps across planetary distances. However, techniques involving time were still beyond her reach.

Mei was even more ridiculous.

After spending several days sparring with Sylvia, she'd somehow managed to learn Tsubame Gaeshi herself.

She still wasn't very skilled with it and could only perform two distinct strikes at once, but she'd already taken the first step. More progress was sure to follow.

Meanwhile, work on the Simulated Universe was nearly complete.

Herta and Screwllum's project had reached its final stages, yet for some reason, Ruan Mei had come to the space station in person.

Sylvia was startled when she spotted Ruan Mei on the platform.

"Ruan Mei? What're you doing here?"

"Herta invited me. She insisted I come and give your child a physical examination."

Ruan Mei studied Sylvia with keen interest.

She knew the "child" Herta had mentioned wasn't Sylvia's naturally conceived offspring. It was clearly different from the form of "Propagation" she wanted to study.

Still, a dragon descendant born from a union with one of Herta's puppets was certainly worth researching.

And the fact that Herta had gone out of her way to ask for her help over a child was quite a surprise.

Was this really the same arrogant Herta she knew?

With that thought in mind, Ruan Mei approached Sylvia. A faint, sweet scent drifted through the air as she held a piece of still-warm pastry to Sylvia's lips.

"Those little ones discovered some crops on your planet. They have a rather unusual flavor. Would you like a taste?"

"On my planet?"

Sylvia opened her mouth and took a bite.

A strange mix of flavors burst across her tongue. Oddly enough, it wasn't unpleasant. It gave her the bizarre feeling that she was somehow tasting the sky itself.

"But wasn't all the vegetation there planted by the IPC? There are new species too?"

Ruan Mei was as patient as ever. She watched Sylvia finish the pastry bit by bit, then offered her a small plate holding more.

"Life always finds a way. Even in the harshest environments, some forms of life will survive."

"Mmm... I see."

Sylvia held the plate in one hand and picked up another pastry with the other.

Ruan Mei really was amazing at making sweets.

"Incidentally, this particular crop can greatly increase physiological desire."

"Pfft—cough, cough! What the hell?!"

Ruan Mei had looked straight at Sylvia's stunning face and casually dropped that bombshell.

Sylvia nearly choked.

She'd almost sprayed pastry crumbs everywhere.

A faint smile appeared on Ruan Mei's face as she watched Sylvia panic. But rather than answer her question, she urged Sylvia to lead the way.

"It won't cause you any harm. Come, take me to see today's main attraction."

As for the pastry's additional effect, it was real. It simply wasn't likely to work on Sylvia.

Her body was far too powerful to be affected by ordinary substances. Ruan Mei had only mentioned it as a joke to lighten the mood.

If only Sylvia would agree to her research proposal.

Sylvia led the way with an odd look on her face.

She couldn't tell whether it was her imagination, but ever since Ruan Mei had mentioned the pastry's effects, she'd felt a little flushed. Her heart even seemed to be beating faster.

Nope.

She couldn't eat any more.

Sylvia quickly shoved all the remaining pastries into her personal storage space.

Who would've thought?

After everything that'd happened, the person most interested in getting her hands on Sylvia's body turned out to be that mad scientist, Ruan Mei.

Seriously, the woman always wore that cool, indifferent expression, then casually said the most outrageous things.

Sometimes, it was a truly strange experience.

Ruan Mei watched Sylvia's shifting expressions with interest.

If they'd still been at the stage of their first meeting, and Ruan Mei had wanted to study Sylvia's reproductive abilities, she might've simply drugged her and proceeded with her experiments.

But things were different now.

Sylvia was one of Herta's collaborators, after all. Her strength and status had also risen to an entirely different level.

Trying to force the issue would clearly leave Ruan Mei worse off.

Besides, compared to a single experiment, having free rein to conduct research on a planet protected by Sylvia, a publicly recognized Emanator, was an opportunity she rarely encountered.

So Ruan Mei had decided to take a gentler approach.

During their first meeting, Sylvia had made a request related to physical intimacy.

That meant Ruan Mei's looks held some appeal for her.

Sylvia had claimed she was only joking at the time, but Ruan Mei could tell that more than half of what she'd said had been sincere.

She still didn't understand why Sylvia had eventually given up on the idea.

But at least she'd found a possible approach, hadn't she?

Ruan Mei didn't have any special romantic feelings for Sylvia. Still, if becoming intimate with her would help achieve her goals, she wasn't against the idea.

Sylvia, of course, had no idea what Ruan Mei was thinking.

She simply assumed the woman was still obsessed with that reproduction experiment.

After all, Ruan Mei's affection rating toward her hadn't budged at all.

It was pretty much the same as Herta's.

Their relationships had certainly improved, but raising either woman's affection rating remained as hard as climbing to heaven.

Sylvia found Little Herta in the Storage Zone.

The Storage Zone was where Herta kept various Curios. Under normal circumstances, very few people had permission to come and go as they pleased.

But Herta had been remarkably generous in granting Little Herta access.

She'd wanted the girl to broaden her horizons and expand her understanding of the world.

"Little Herta, are you busy?"

Sylvia walked over and scooped Little Herta up from behind.

Little Herta put away the holographic screen in her hands and shook her head.

"Nope. I was just looking for toys."

Besides the Curios Herta had marked as dangerous, there were plenty that were harmless or even fun. Herta had picked out a selection of these and given Little Herta permission to handle them herself.

When it came to looking after Little Herta, Herta had been quite responsible.

Sylvia stroked the girl's head.

Apart from the occasional childish moment, Little Herta had clearly inherited Herta's personality.

"Did Herta tell you about the physical examination?"

"Yep! Is the big sister over there Madam Ruan Mei?"

"That's right, little one."

Only when Little Herta turned toward her did Ruan Mei approach. She gently placed a hand on the girl's head, and a faint glow spread from her fingertips as she performed a basic scan of Little Herta's body.

"What an interesting structure..."

A smile touched Ruan Mei's lips before she asked in a gentle voice, "Does this make you uncomfortable?"

Little Herta squirmed a little in Sylvia's arms.

"Mmm, it tickles. It feels like something's passing through my body."

"I see."

Hearing her answer, Ruan Mei stopped what she was doing.

Little Herta's senses were quite sharp.

Of course, that was partly because of Ruan Mei's examination method. Most of her techniques had been designed for carbon-based life, and this was her first time using them on a being like Little Herta.

Ruan Mei withdrew her hand and smiled.

"Don't worry. This won't affect your health. But you shouldn't rely on flying all the time. Compared to your wings, your arms and legs are a little too thin."

With the power of Permanence as her foundation, Little Herta's body should've been much stronger than this.

Her current condition was clearly the result of too little exercise.

It was rare to encounter such an interesting specimen.

Herta had already begun studying how Little Herta's intelligence would develop as she grew. Ruan Mei, meanwhile, wanted to see what kind of physical growth potential she possessed.

Erudition and Permanence combined had solved the issue of lifespan, something Herta would've otherwise needed to devote considerable effort to.

It was an extraordinary gift.

Ruan Mei turned toward Sylvia and pointed in the direction of the Seclusion Zone.

Although the danger there had already been dealt with, it was still Ruan Mei's laboratory and the place where her Critters were kept. Visitors weren't normally allowed to enter.

"Let's head down to the laboratory. There's better equipment for physical examinations there."

Little Herta's physical condition had caught Ruan Mei's interest.

Or rather, it had made her even more curious about Sylvia's abilities.

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